Sunday February 17

If you wanted to encapsulate the changes in bird populations that have occurred over the last twenty years, you need look no further than this morning's visit to the patch.

A pleasantly mild, fairly sunny start was brightened still further by the brief appearance of a Red Kite which flew over the Chat Field pausing only to circle once or twice above Church farm.

Red Kite

At the Flash Field an apparition of pure white emerged from behind the sedge. The Little Egret was still present.

Little Egret

A couple of hours later, as I drove home having again failed to locate any Yellowhammers, having seen no Grey Partridges among the Red-legs, the only sparrows on offer being House Sparrows, I spotted a flock of corvids wheeling around over Pooles Wood. Astonishingly at least 18 of them were Ravens.

Some of the Ravens

When I got home I reached for my latest WMBC Bird Report thinking that this could be a new Warwickshire record only to discover I was not even close. In 2016 a flock of 58 had been seen at Priors Hardwick on April 2 of that year.

How times change.

Turning back time, just to this morning at the Chat Field, the scrubby patch the Red Kite had overflown contained three out of a grand total of five Stonechats seen within my self-imposed patch boundary today.

The Flash Field contained not just the Little Egret, but also eight Teal, several Mallard, a pair of Shelducks, two Shovelers, four Lapwings, and six Coot. A Little Owl stared at us from its usual tree, and later I was able to show Dave the Barn Owl, which was still lurking in the back of its box at the south end of the site.

Little Owl

I just hope these two species maintain their tenuous claim as ever-present residents at Morton Bagot.